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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Haiku #375 - L'Shana Tova

I have to confess that I had little to no awareness of Jewish culture when I moved to New York, short of having read a few books like Number the Stars as a kid. There are simply not very many Jews in New Mexico, and aside from a childhood friend named Rachel who was culturally Jewish but didn't know much about that heritage, and two short-term college roommates who halfheartedly tried to keep kosher with their three Gentile compatriots (at least we had 2 fridges?), I was clue-free about the Chosen People until I moved to New York. I've had many Heebpiphanies, if you will, from my first real bagel to realizing my coworker whose last name was Levy was not, in fact, a light-skinned Latino (of which there are many in New Mexico). Even now, I usually become aware of approaching Jewish holidays via facebook, or in this case, my lovely delivery grocery store, Fresh Direct (order now! we will sell out of Rosh Hashanah meals!).I love living here, where people of so many different cultural and ethnic backgrounds coexist in relative peace - a politically correct, sometimes slightly hostile peace, but peace just the same. That is a fact I won't take for granted after trying to educate myself about Syria this week. There was a graphic that caught my eye that purported to explain why the conflict got started: a color-coded map showing all the different religious and ethnic sects living in close proximity. I suspect a map of Queens would look much the same. So...there but for the grace of (fill in the blank with your preferred higher power) go we. Still...there must be a way. But I think peace has to be the goal, not just a byproduct of some other goal.To that end, to my Jewish friends, and all friends who wish to celebrate peace and new beginnings, from your Shiksa friend, with love:L'Shana Tovamay we all have peace and sweetapples and honey